Steele: RNC Getting Heat "Because A Black Man Is Chairman"

RNC Chairman and designated GOP sparkplug Michael Steele finds himself the center of attention once again this week — this time for an interview published in February’s issue of Washingtonian magazine in which he charges his critics with racism.

Steele acknowledges that at times he has a tendency to take things too far. “And I get checked on that, just as when I was a young boy and I pushed the envelope too far and my Mama was there to check me.”But there’s an edge to his voice when he talks about a double standard that he believes has been applied by his critics, and he posits racism as the cause: “I don’t see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation. Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?”

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This is, of course, the same Michael Steele who had previously vowed not to play the race card. The GOP chairman said last October he didn’t take part in race politics in an interview with Univision, during which he declined to condemn Glenn Beck’s assertion that Obama is a “racist.”